Baghlan Boy

Baghlan Boy is a novel from Michael Crowley.

When he is just eleven years old, a strike from a drone destroys Farood Abali's family home in Afghanistan's Baghlan Province.

It kills his father and leaves Farood and his older brother, alone as the sole survivors.

His brother takes the family's flock of sheep and sells them, using the money to pay a shadowy 'agent' to take Farood to the West. He hopes that, eventually, Farood would be able to return with wealth to free them from their poverty.

The journey that Farood takes is a harsh one, he endures pain and suffering as he traverses Pakistan, Iran and Turkey kept in the boots of cars, or forced to hide in cellars and in trailers.

But by the time he is 19, Farood is incarcerated in an English jail, imprisoned, or so he claims, for a crime which he is innocent of.

But could Farood escape from his imprisonment? And if he could, what would he do? What could he do?

This is a remarkable novel which is an intelligent look at how and why people become refugees in our modern world.

It's published by The Book Guild at £8.99. 

I'm Fine, Thanks

I'm Fine, Thanks is a fictionalised account of a very moving memoir from Chris Doveton.

It's the prime of their lives for Chris and Anne. They are enjoying life in general and are especially enjoying their loving, vibrant marriage. 

But then tragedy strikes them as Anne is diagnosed as suffering from a rare but fatal genetic disease. For a decade the couple bravely shoulder this burden alone, keeping it a secret.

Following Anne's death Chris becomes a victim of a crushing grief. 

He learns that if he is to cope with his wife's death, he must rid himself of his "stiff upper lip" attitude. 

He becomes able to express his loss by opening up to people and learning that it's OK to cry and that often, "I'm Fine, Thanks" isn't a suitable answer.

Chris embraces therapy that saves his life and he finds himself able to reactivate his religious faith and to find love, again.

It's a moving book and an important one.

It's published by The Book Guild at £8.99.

Leicester Rocks

In Leicester Rocks by Mike Hatfield, we meet Leicester's Stan Booker. 

It's 2015 (that's the year, not the time)  and we meet Stan Booker. Stan's having one of those: "Where did it all go wrong moments?" in his life.

He's in his mid-fifties, he doesn't have a job, doesn't have a wife (well, not since the divorce at any rate) and he really thinks that his desire to achieve rock God status as a guitarist will not come to fruition.

But! Along comes his lifelong friend Phil and all bets are off. Or on, perhaps?

Because Phil and he are about to start their own business and Mike forms a rock band called Leicester Rocks.

He also becomes romantically involved with  twice-divorced Mandy.

He knows that there's about as much chance of the band hitting the big time as there is for his team Leicester City winning the Premier League. another of his pipe dreams.

But what if the star is ascending for both Leicester Rocks and Leicester City? Can both stay the distance? Or will love and loyalties be tested to or beyond destruction?

It's a lively feelgood romp of a story and is published by Matador at £9.99.   

A Healing Place

In his new book A Healing Place, author Dermod Judge shares with his readers his very personal quest to find his healing place or places.

He points out that we are all born into a large world. And that for all but a privileged few, it's a cruel world.

He also acknowledges that he was born into a privileged family in Ireland, in a modest house in a desirable part of Dublin.

However, he goes on to explain that even the most privileged amongst us can still receive wounds that require a healing place to which we can retire to while we wait for the wounds to heal or for the hurt to fade.

We learn what he was able to learn. That some books are considered dangerous. Including the Bible, which as a child and a troubled teen, he wasn't allowed to read on his own. There wasn't even a Bible in the family home. He realised that he had to have the scriptures filtered through teachers and clerics for him.

This, he concluded, was that because books (such as the Bible) are considered as dangerous because these books had the very dangerous power to change the world.

This is why libraries are always burned and ransacked by the iron men.

In his book he shares a unique and very interesting series of insights into the human situation, drawing upon the combined wisdom of artists, writers, architects, naturalists and thinkers. But not, interestingly enough, not Nietzsche. (You'll find out why when you read the book.)

This is an amazing and invigorating book, which you will be able to use as a guidebook to your own healing places.

It's written with warmth, wit, wisdom and more than a dash of élan. 

There's also a section of notes for further reading. Or as Dermod puts it: "These notes add an embarrassing whiff of scholarship to this work which is no more than the product of a good library, Google and a mind and memory as capacious as a whore's handbag."

You need this book, because it's rather like a chat with the author over a pint of Guinness, Smithwick's Irish ale, or a drop of Irish single malt.

It's published by The Book Guild at £9.99.

Nomad Girl

Nomad Girl by Niema Ash is her memoir of life in the fast lane of the swinging sixties and toward more recent times.

A childhood dream of Canadian-born Niema was to travel the world as a genuine child of the sixties, this is exactly what she did.

During her travels round the world, basically from Montreal to Morocco and all points between, she met and became friends with people such as Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, bluesman John Lee Hooker and the Dalai Lama and had a whole host of adventures some planned but many not.

Whilst traveling across Africa (by hitchhiking) she and her partner Shimon realised that they were expecting a baby, so they returned to her home city of Montreal where they opened The Finjan, a folk and blues club that also served as a coffee house.

And then the adventures really began. There was motherhood, she gave birth to her daughter Ronit. Life with her new family, Shimon, Ronit and herself. But there was something else, something more that Niema needed.

The book is filled with characters that you will already have heard of, Diana Dors and The Bee Gees to name only two, but you'll also learn about characters that probably won't be known to you, such as Pistol Pete, Sonny and Brownie, and many more besides.

Niema introduces you to family, friends and lovers in this enthralling and honest account.

It makes for a remarkable read, although I can't help feeling that the absence of any photographs (save for two modern images on the front a and back covers) is a regrettable one.

The book is published by Matador at £13.99.

Born Together The Story of Conjoined Twins

Born Together The Story of Conjoined Twins is a book by Doctor Michael L. Cox.

In his book Dr Cox takes a detailed and very sensitive look at this very difficult subject.

He looks at the ethics of the birth of conjoined twins. For example could it ever be justified to sacrifice the life of one twin so that the other could live?

Whilst he was an obstetrics and gynaecology specialist at the George Elliot Hospital in Nuneaton, two sets of  were born under his care, which stimulated his interest in this field of medicine, resulting in this very fascinating and eminently readable book.

Dr Cox looks at cases that are still a part of common culture like Change and Eng Bunker.

There are other cases that are less well-known which he draws attention to; Millie and Christine McKoy, born in North Carolina in 1851. Their story is a sad one, as they were born into slavery and were sold as circus exhibits. However, a trip to England was used as an opportunity to reunite them with their mother.

Then there is the case of Sardinia's Ritta and Christina Parodi who were born in Marcy 1829. 

They had double upper bodies, but only one lower body. Sadly they died at eight months of age.

Other cases covered include Myrtle Corbin of Tennessee, who had one upper body and two lower bodies, which was the reason why Myrtle had only one name, unlike most other conjoined twins.

After earning $450 a week, a phenomenal sum of money in the 19th century, she married a Doctor Clinton Bicknell when she was 19.

Readers will learn about Mina and Minnie Finley (a confusing choice of names for conjoined twins one  might think) there was Laloo the India boy, tragically killed in a train crash, Jean Libbera of Rome, the Tocci brothers, Rosa and Josefa Blazek, Daisy and Violet Hilton of England, born in 1908, Simplicio and Lucio Dodiop of the Philippines, also born in 1908, Mary and Margaret Gibb born in Massachusetts in 1912.

Amongst other stories is the heart-breaking case of Masha and Dasha Krivoshlyapova, born in 1950's Moscow. It has to be said that they were not treated particularly well by the Communist government.

There are a number of modern cases in many of which Dr Cox discusses the medical procedures employed.

He also makes mention of a very rare case of conjoined triplets in Italy in 1831, during which the Doctor decided to amputate two of the heads during the birth. 

Dr Cox covers the known causes of conjoined twins, but in a way that is very readable.

He also mentions Ambrose Pare, the chief surgeon to Charles IX and Henri III and William Smellie (1697 to 1762 who, in his book, A Treatise on the Theory and Practice of Midwifery covered what he described as "twins and monsters."

Even astrology has been mentioned as a factor, at least by Leslie Fiedler.

There have also been epidemics of conjoined twin births, possibly resulting from environmental factors, genetic factors or random chance.

There are also historical conjoined twins such as Mary and Eliza Chulkhurst who were born in 1100 in the Kentish village of Biddenden. The plague twins of Kingston Upon Hull, the Scottish brothers of the 1500s, the girls of Worms in Germany on 1495, etc.

He also covers fictional accounts of conjoined twins from the writings of Mark Twain, Brian Aldis, Irvine Walsh, Alexandre Dumas. He also covers dramas, radio, stage, TV and cinema, including The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy.

This book is a fascinating read for the layman, the medical student and nurses and doctors who might have to help parents cope with a conjoined birth.

It is published by The Book Guild at £10.99.

Sorry about the hiatus

 Sorry about the hiatus in publishing book reviews. This is because my wife and I were both fell victim to the Coronavirus which laid us both up for a while.

However, we are recovering and book reviews will commence being published very soon.